With every day that passes we are living in a world that becomes more and more automated, 3D aerial photography is no exception.
Tesla has autonomous cars, phones can be controlled entirely by voice and gestures, and now this; drones buzzing overhead creating virtual worlds. Technology has advanced to the point where drones can fly autonomously over our world while simultaneously creating new ones. 3D aerial photography is on the rise, here’s how it works.
But, just what exactly do we mean by that? Think of a world were Google Maps isn’t just a map anymore, but an interactive interface. Type in an address and you don’t just see a top down view, but an all-around view, almost as if you could reach out and touch it. That is the vision that we at fly4pix foster. We don’t want to follow the curve of modern edge technology, we want to be in front of it. The thing about new technology however is that seeing is believing; so check this out!
This is the Hilton Hotel in downtown Wilmington, This imperfectly marvelous 3D structure was created by our Fly4Pix UAV operator. He was standing on the parking deck across the street. First and foremost, all filming was done in a safe manor, following an established flight path. Using software called “Drone Deploy”, the operator was able to easily and effortlessly plot out a plan in which the drone would zigzag above the Hilton, at a pre-established height, capturing pictures with major overlap. The mapping and way-point software in and of itself are amazing. From takeoff to landing the operator did not have to press a single button, besides the initiating the pre-flight checklist. While in the air there was no wobbling, no nerve wracking unexpected movements, just a nice smooth ride from end to end.
Besides capturing nadir imagery (images taken from top down), the pilot also captured oblique imagery (pictures taken from a side angle). A point of interest function (a function which makes the UAV fly in an established circle) is available for both phantom 3 & 4s, making the second flight just as effortless as the first. After 15 minutes of relatively autonomous flight, 96 pictures had been captured and uploaded to a cloud server on which the software could render a 3D image. The results were impressive, to say the least!
While it is unknown at this point if the software can make a perfect rendering (renderings by other pilots have come extremely close), the potential is clear and the motivation is obvious. Fly your drone, create your 3D rendering, learn today’s tech and take tomorrow by storm.
If you would like to be part of the 3D aerial photography experience, or are curious to see what certain structures look (while still understanding the limitations), contact us. Flying is what we do!
